What will a presidential system change?

Shakir Lakhani

When you are in a great hurry to transform a nation of beggars into a highly developed welfare state, no one is surprised if you fail. It has taken decades for China and the rich nations of the West to become what they are today. Our Dear Leader should have realised this by now, but the way he does things, we’ll never know if he acts on the advice of his known confidants or gets his orders from somewhere else. Particularly disturbing is the sacking of his chosen successor, the former finance minister, and making the former information minister, a lawyer, the minister of science and technology. How far can you trust a man with scientific knowledge after he has claimed that a helicopter uses only 55 rupees worth of fuel for every kilometre it flies?
As for the former finance minister – whom the Great Khan praised to the skies only a day before kicking him out – one has to admire the grace with which he conducted himself. Despite the humiliation he had to bear he was all praise for his leader who would pronounce the very next day that only those who were not beneficial to the country had been asked to leave. The former finance wizard must really be thick-skinned. But then if you desperately want power you have to be prepared to endure everything.
We have been there before. Ayub Khan was the first one to try his hand at it. His 1962 Constitution had an electoral college of only 80,000 voters, known as the Basic Democrats, for a population of 80,000,000, including East Pakistan, about which most of the Great Khan’s brainwashed followers have not heard or read about. Lest we forget, we lost half the country under a presidential rule. It was easy to rig elections then, as a majority of the 80,000 voters could easily be bribed or coerced to vote for the man in power, as happened in the heavily rigged 1965 elections in which Ayub Khan defeated Fatima Jinnah by a landslide.
What PTI lovers don’t understand is that it doesn’t matter whether we have a parliamentary system or a presidential one, the country’s problems will always remain, unless the leadership is tough, honest and incorruptible. Ayub Khan was very popular during the first couple of years in power, as many law-breakers, including smugglers, were caught and punished. Later, as he grew older and weaker, corruption again became the norm. One fine day, sugar suddenly disappeared from the market and the people came out in the streets demanding his resignation. Ayub Khan couldn’t believe that the people hated him so much.
Needless to say, this is what happens when a ruler only listens to his yes-men, who tell him every day that the situation in the county is firmly under control and people are happy under his rule. They sound a lot like they have been brainwashed but maybe it is just that they are impressed with the performance of some countries where one-man rule has proved effective. They ignore the fact that governments in these countries entertain no idea of human rights. Is it a coincidence that some of them also believe that Pakistan is on the verge of becoming a big oil exporter?
Even if oil is discovered in the sea near our shores, the country will not become rich overnight. It will take five years at least before the crude can be refined and foreign exchange earned for the country. The Great Khan and his ministers are convinced that huge reserves of oil and gas are out there in the sea near Karachi. One of them has said that soon there would be so many jobs (a billion?) available in the country there wouldn’t be enough applicants to fill the vacancies. By the way, one wonders what happened to him. He wasn’t among those whom the Dear Leader sacked or transferred.
So the Great Khan is in a tough situation today. He is hesitant to take action against the corrupt elements in his own party being heavily dependent on them to stay in power. It is evident that his government will not be able to change anything. The promised tabdeeli (change) is nowhere in sight, and will not happen even if the presidential system is adopted. As the past eight months have proved, whether he is made president or not, the Great Khan cannot succeed unless he goes after the looters, smugglers and tax-evaders, even those who are in his own party.
The writer is a freelancer